Age-associated differences in clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters during a dengue virus type 4 outbreak in Argentina

Infection by any of the four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes produces a wide spectrum of clinical illness in humans. Differences in clinical manifestation and severity have been associated with secondary heterologous infection, patient age, and virus serotype. In this context, this retrospective study sought to analyze the presentation of dengue in patients during the 2014 DENV-4 outbreak affecting the City of Orán, Salta Province, Argentina. Demographic data, clinical manifestations, and laboratory abnormalities of laboratory-confirmed dengue patients were compared between age groups and between patients with and without warning signs. Of 301 patients with laboratory-confirmed dengue, 37.9% presented dengue with warning signs. Although nearly half of all patients had secondary DENV infections, no severe dengue cases, or deaths were reported. Furthermore, no association was found between incidence of warning signs and pre-existing immunity to DENV. Pediatric patients were least likely to present warning signs and showed significantly decreased risk of fever, retro-orbital pain, arthalgia, diarrhea and thrombocytopenia, and higher risk of rash compared to older patients. Female patients of all ages were also at higher risk of developing several symptoms. The characterization of DENV-4 infection in humans, a DENV serotype recently reported in Argentina, revealed differences in clinical manifestations, laboratory parameters and the presence/absence of warning signs based on age group. Further investigation of these age-related differences should contribute to better assessment of dengue disease in at risk populations.Fil: Byrne, Alana Brooke. Fundación para la Investigación en Infectología Infantil; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gutierrez, Francisco Guillermo. Hospital San Vicente de Paul; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Bruno, Agostina Alejandra. Hospital San Vicente de Paul; ArgentinaFil: Cordoba, María Teresa. Hospital San Vicente de Paul; ArgentinaFil: Bono, María M.. Hospital San Vicente de Paul; ArgentinaFil: Polack, Fernando Pedro. Fundación para la Investigación en Infectología Infantil; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Talarico, Laura Beatriz. Fundación para la Investigación en Infectología Infantil; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Quipildor, Marcelo Omar. Hospital San Vicente de Paul; Argentin

Catchment soil moisture and rainfall characteristics as determinant factors for discharge/suspended sediment hysteretic loops in a small headwater catchment in the Spanish pyrenees

32 páginas, 7 figuras, 4 tablas.-- El PDF es el artículo en formato pre-print.The concentration of suspended sediment and discharge generated during flood events are not normally homogenous, and the curve representing sediment concentration vs. discharge through time is often a hysteretic loop. Three types of hysteretic loops were found at Arnás, a Mediterranean headwater catchment in the Central Spanish Pyrenees: clockwise (the most frequent), counter-clockwise and eight-shaped. They are associated with different levels of humidity and rainfall and therefore indicators of different processes of runoff and sediment transport. Clockwise loops are generated under ‘normal’ stormflow conditions, when the catchment is very moist and runoff generation and sediment supply is limited to areas next to the channel (i.e. sediments are removed, transported and depleted rapidly). Counter-clockwise curves occur under very high moisture and high antecedent rainfall conditions. In this case, flood propagation occurs as a kinematic wave. Sediment sources are incorporated all over the catchment. In both cases, saturation excess overland flow generates the superficial runoff. The eight-shaped loop (partial clockwise followed by counter-clockwise) occurs with low water content. Here, the runoff generation process is supposed to be infiltration excess overland flow, which causes a rapid extension of the contributing areas both near the channel and over the whole catchment.This paper has been supported by the following projects: ‘Water resources management in a changing environment: the impact of sediment on sustainability’ (WARMICE, ENV4-CT98-0789) funded by the European Comission, and ‘Assessment of sediment sources and runoff generation areas in relation to land use changes’ (HIDROESCALA, REN2000-1709-C04-01/GLO) and ‘Hydrological processes in semi-natural Mediterranean areas’ (PROHISEM, REN 2001-2268-C02-01/HID), both funded by CICYT. Monitoring of the catchment has been supported by the agreement between CSIC and the Spanish Ministry of Environment (RESEL).Peer reviewe

La catástrofe del barranco de Arás (Biescas, Pirineo Aragonés) y su contexto espacio-temporal

[ES] Se estudian las características de la precipitación y del pico de crecida durante la catástrofe ocurrida en el barranco de Arás en la tarde del 7 de agosto de 1996. Se ha podido comprobar que aunque la tormenta fue muy intensa en toda la cuenca, su violencia alcanzó mayor magnitud en un pequeño sector de la subcuenca de Betés, en el que se ha estimado una intensidad superior a 500 mm.hr-1 y una precipitación total algo superior a 250 mm. En el tramo final del barranco de Arás debieron registrarse unos 500 m³s-1 incluyendo los sedimentos transportados, para una cuenca de 18.8 km². Las evaluaciones realizadas permiten estimar que el 75 % del caudal procedió de la subcuenca de Betés, que representa sólo el 28.7 % de la superficie total de la cuenca. Se ha evaluado el volumen de sedimentos movilizados en el sector final del barranco de Arás. Finalmente, el evento tormentoso ha sido situado en un contexto espacial y temporal más amplio. La catástofe del barranco de Arás confirma las limitaciones de los actuales sistemas de análisis probabilístico de riesgos, dada su gran irregularidad espacial y temporal.[EN] The characteristics of precipitation and peak flow during the Arás catastrophe in the evening of August, 7, 1996, are studied. The storm was very intense over the whole basin, and especially in a small area of the Betés subbasin, in which intensities greater than 500 mm.hr-1 have been estimated, with a total amount of precipitation somewhat higher than 250 mm. In the final stretch of the Arás ravine a discharge of 500 m³s-1, including the sediments, have been estimated for a basin of 18.8 km².. Seventy five per cent of the discharge carne from the Betés subbasin, which represents only 28.7 per cent of the basin. The volume of sediments mobilized in the final stretch of the Arás ravine has also been evaluated. Finally, the rainstorm event has been placed in a larger spatial and temporal context. The catastrophe of the Arás ravine confirms the lirnitations of existing systems of probabilistic analysis, due to the spatial and temporal irregularity of storm events.Peer reviewe

Efecto del momento de diferimiento y utilización sobre el rendimiento y la calidad de Megathyrsus maximus cv. Gatton panic, en el Chaco semiárido

In semi-arid Chaco, there are areas that present limitations on fodder stocks. In these situations, deferred forage is the main strategy to overcome the forage deficit. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of deferred and use time of Megathyrsus maximus cv. Gatton panic on yield and nutritional quality. Three deferred times (February, March and April) and two use times (June and August) were evaluated. Dry matter partitioning was determined by separating leaves and stems. Through laboratory analysis, forage quality parameters such as crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were evaluated, besides dry matter digestibility (DMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) were calculated. The highest forage yield was recorded in February, although more advanced phenological development was observed, increasing NDF and FDA, and decreasing the ratio leaf/steam and the percentage of CP. There were no differences in yield between time of use, although there were differences in the percentage of CP, which was higher in June. There were also no differences for digestibility and metabolizable energy between deferred  and use time.En el Chaco semiárido hay zonas que presentan limitaciones para la confección de reservas forrajeras. En estas situaciones, el forraje diferido se constituye en la principal estrategia para superar el bache forrajero. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el efecto del momento de diferimiento y de utilización de Megathyrsus maximus cv. Gatton panic sobre el rendimiento y la calidad nutricional. Se evaluaron tres momentos de diferimiento (febrero, marzo y abril) y dos momentos de utilización del forraje (junio y agosto). Se determinó la partición de materia seca separando hojas y tallos. Mediante análisis de laboratorio se evaluaron parámetros de calidad del forraje: proteína bruta (PB), fibra detergente neutra (FDN) y fibra detergente ácida (FDA) y se calculó la digestibilidad de materia seca (DMS) y la energía metabolizable (EM). El mayor rendimiento de forraje se registró en la clausura de febrero, aunque se observó un desarrollo fenológico más avanzado, aumentando la FDN y FDA y disminuyendo la relación hoja/tallo y el porcentaje de PB. No hubo diferencias en el rendimiento entre los distintos momentos de utilización, aunque sí en el porcentaje de PB, que fue mayor en junio. Tampoco se registraron diferencias para digestibilidad y energía metabolizable entre los momentos de diferimiento y de utilización

Synergistic activation of AMPK prevents from polyglutamine-inducedtoxicity inCaenorhabditis elegans

11 páginas, 4 figuras. Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2020.105105.Expression of abnormally long polyglutamine (polyQ) tracks is the source of a range of dominant neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington disease. Currently, there is no treatment for this devastating disease, although some chemicals, e.g., metformin, have been proposed as therapeutic solutions. In this work, we show that metformin, together with salicylate, can synergistically reduce the number of aggregates produced after polyQ expression in Caenorhabditis elegans. Moreover, we demonstrate that incubation polyQ-stressed worms with low doses of both chemicals restores neuronal functionality. Both substances are pleitotropic and may activate a range of different targets. However, we demonstrate in this report that the beneficial effect induced by the combination of these drugs depends entirely on the catalytic action of AMPK, since loss of function mutants of aak-2/AMPKα2 do not respond to the treatment. To further investigate the mechanism of the synergetic activity of metformin/salicylate, we used CRISPR to generate mutant alleles of the scaffolding subunit of AMPK, aakb-1/AMPKβ1. In addition, we used an RNAi strategy to silence the expression of the second AMPKβ subunit in worms, namely aakb-2/AMPKβ2. In this work, we demonstrated that both regulatory subunits of AMPK are modulators of protein homeostasis. Interestingly, only aakb-2/AMPKβ2 is required for the synergistic action of metformin/salicylate to reduce polyQ aggregation. Finally, we showed that autophagy acts downstream of metformin/salicylate-related AMPK activation to promote healthy protein homeostasis in worms.We thank the CGC, funded by the NIH Office of ResearchInfrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440), for worm strains. [...] RPVMis aMiguel Servet type IIresearcher (CPII16/00004) funded by Institutode Salud Carlos III (ISCIII, Madrid, Spain). Grants from the ISCIII wereused to perform this work (PI14/00949 and PI17/00011). All grantsfrom ISCIII are co-financed by the European Development RegionalFund”A way to achieve Europe”(ERDF). JBY holds a grant from theGeneralitat Valenciana and the European Social Fund (ACIF/2019/249). Some equipment used in this work has been funded in partnershipbetween the Generalitat Valenciana (Conselleria de Sanitat I SalutPública, Valencian Community, Spain) and European Funds (ERDF/FSE), through the call "Improvement of research infrastructures for rarediseases”CV FEDER 2014-2020. This work has been partially supportedby a grant from the Fundació Telemarató de la TV3 (Reference 559),which covered the work of MDS. The funds from the ISCIII are partiallysupported by the European Regional Development Fund. RPVM is also aMarie Curie fellow (CIG322034, EU). This work has been partiallysupported by a grant from the CIBERER (ACCI2016), a grant from theFundación Ramón Areces (CIVP19S8119) and anAyuda Miguel Gilgrantto RPVM (VII Convocatoria Ayudas a la Investigación MHER, 2019Peer reviewe

Recommendations for dental care in a situation of SARS-COV-2 pandemic and post-pandemic

La Odontología es una de las cinco profesiones más expuestas a contraer COVID-19, debido a la exposición -durante las actividades clínicas-al contacto con sangre, saliva, aerosoles, manipulación de sustancias potencialmente nocivas. El conocimiento de los riesgos propios de su entorno tiene como objetivo último evitar que los odontólogos y las personas vinculadas a la práctica profesional provoquen -por desconocimiento, inobservancia o falta de apropiación de los saberes-contagios y/o impactos desfavorables para ellos y el ambiente. Al minimizar el riesgo y la posibilidad de infecciones cruzadas se evitarán mayores contagios, en el contexto actual, sin desatender las emergencias odontológicas.publishedVersionFil: Allende Posse, María. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Arévalo, Paola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Bojanich, Alejandra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Bono, A. Colegio Odontológico de la Provincia de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Busleiman, Federico. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Castillo, Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Castillo, Graciela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Castillo, María Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Ermoli, J. Colegio Odontológico de la Provincia de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Flores, N. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Gigena, Pablo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Girardi, Mónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Gutvay, Ada. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Herrera, Analía. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Huespe Rico, Verónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Irazuzta, María Laura. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Martínez, Dora. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Moriconi, E. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina.Fil: Pereyra, María Eugenia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Priotto, Elba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Raya Tonetti, G. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina.Fil: Rezzónico, M. S. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Scatena, Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Vera, Mónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina.Fil: Zorrilla, Inés. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Equipo de Investigación en Higiene y Bioseguridad y Centro de Bioseguridad; Argentina

Dermoscopic evaluation of nodular melanoma

Importance: Nodular melanoma (NM) is a rapidly progressing potentially lethal skin tumor for which early diagnosis is critical

The effect of skewness and kurtosis on the robustness of linear mixed models

This study analyzes the robustness of the linear mixed model (LMM) with the Kenward–Roger (KR) procedure to violations of normality and sphericity when used in split-plot designs with small sample sizes. Specifically, it explores the independent effect of skewness and kurtosis on KR robustness for the values of skewness and kurtosis coefficients that are most frequently found in psychological and educational research data. To this end, a Monte Carlo simulation study was designed, considering a split-plot design with three levels of the between-subjects grouping factor and four levels of the within-subjects factor. Robustness is assessed in terms of the probability of type I error. The results showed that (1) the robustness of the KR procedure does not differ as a function of the violation or satisfaction of the sphericity assumption when small samples are used; (2) the LMM with KR can be a good option for analyzing total sample sizes of 45 or larger when their distributions are normal, slightly or moderately skewed, and with different degrees of kurtosis violation; (3) the effect of skewness on the robustness of the LMM with KR is greater than the corresponding effect of kurtosis for common values; and (4) when data are not normal and the total sample size is 30, the procedure is not robust. Alternative analyses should be performed when the total sample size is 30

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts