611 research outputs found
Triatoma rubrovaria (Blanchard, 1843) (Hemiptera - Reduviidae - Triatominae) IV: bionomic aspects on the vector capacity of nymphs
The epidemiologic importance of Triatoma brasiliensis as a Chagas disease vector in Brazil: a revision of domiciliary captures during 1993-1999
Description and characterization of the melanic morphotype of Rhodnius nasutus StĂĽl, 1859 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae)
Overview on the phenomenon of two-qubit entanglement revivals in classical environments
The occurrence of revivals of quantum entanglement between separated open
quantum systems has been shown not only for dissipative non-Markovian quantum
environments but also for classical environments in absence of back-action.
While the phenomenon is well understood in the first case, the possibility to
retrieve entanglement when the composite quantum system is subject to local
classical noise has generated a debate regarding its interpretation. This
dynamical property of open quantum systems assumes an important role in quantum
information theory from both fundamental and practical perspectives. Hybrid
quantum-classical systems are in fact promising candidates to investigate the
interplay among quantum and classical features and to look for possible control
strategies of a quantum system by means of a classical device. Here we present
an overview on this topic, reporting the most recent theoretical and
experimental results about the revivals of entanglement between two qubits
locally interacting with classical environments. We also review and discuss the
interpretations provided so far to explain this phenomenon, suggesting that
they can be cast under a unified viewpoint.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Chapter written for the upcoming book "Lectures
on general quantum correlations and their applications
Differential effects of antigens from L. braziliensis isolates from disseminated and cutaneous leishmaniasis on in vitro cytokine production
BACKGROUND: Disseminated leishmaniasis is an emerging infectious disease, mostly due to L. braziliensis, which has clinical and histopathological features distinct from cutaneous leishmaniasis. METHODS: In the current study we evaluated the in vitro production of the cytokines IFN-Îł, TNF-Îą, IL-5 and IL-10 by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 15 disseminated leishmaniasis and 24 cutaneous leishmaniasis patients upon stimulation with L. braziliensis antigens genotyped as disseminated leishmaniasis or cutaneous leishmaniasis isolates. RESULTS: Regardless of the source of L. braziliensis antigens, PBMC from cutaneous leishmaniasis patients produced significantly higher IFN-Îł than PBMC from disseminated leishmaniasis patients. Levels of TNF-Îą by PBMC from cutaneous leishmaniasis patients were significantly higher than disseminated leishmaniasis patients only when stimulated by genotyped cutaneous leishmaniasis antigens. The levels of IL-5 and IL-10 production by PBMC were very low and similar in PBMCs from both disseminated leishmaniasis and cutaneous leishmaniasis patients. The immune response of each patient evaluated by the two L. braziliensis antigens was assessed in a paired analysis in which we showed that L. braziliensis genotyped as disseminated leishmaniasis isolate was more potent than L. braziliensis genotyped as cutaneous leishmaniasis isolate in triggering IFN-Îł and TNF-Îą production in both diseases and IL-5 only in cutaneous leishmaniasis patients. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that antigens prepared from genotypically distinct strains of L. braziliensis induce different degrees of immune response. It also indicates that both parasite and host play a role in the outcome of L. braziliensis infection
Commentaries on Viewpoint: Distinct modalities of eccentric exercise: different recipes, not the same dish
CatĂĄlogo da exposição âĂreas Marinhas Protegidas da Costa Sudoesteâ
CatĂĄlogo da exposição âĂreas Marinhas Protegidas da Costa Sudoesteâ
Effect of invader removal: pollinators stay but some native plants miss their new friend
Removal of invasive species often benefits
biological diversity allowing ecosystemsâ recovery.
However, it is important to assess the functional roles
that invaders may have established in their new areas
to avoid unexpected results from species elimination.
Invasive animal-pollinated plants may affect the
plantâpollination interactions by changing pollinator
availability and/or behaviour in the community. Thus,
removal of an invasive plant may have important
effects on pollinator community that may then be
reflected positive or negatively on the reproductive
success of native plants. The objective of this study
was to assess the effect of removing Oxalis pescaprae,
an invasive weed widely spread in the
Mediterranean basin, on plantâpollinator interactions
and on the reproductive success of co-flowering native
plants. For this, a disturbed area in central Portugal,
where this species is highly abundant, was selected.
Visitation rates, natural pollen loads, pollen tube
growth and natural fruit set of native plants were
compared in the presence of O. pes-caprae and after
manual removal of their flowers. Our results showed a
highly resilient pollination network but also revealed
some facilitative effects of O. pes-caprae on the
reproductive success of co-flowering native plants.
Reproductive success of the native plants seems to
depend not only on the number and diversity of floral
visitors, but also on their efficiency as pollinators. The
information provided on the effects of invasive species
on the sexual reproductive success of natives is
essential for adequate management of invaded areas.This work is financed by FEDER funds through the
COMPETE Program and by Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT) funds in the ambit of the project PTDC/
BIA-BIC/110824/2009, by CRUP Acc¸oËes Integradas Luso-
Espanholas 2010 with the project E10/10, by MCI-Programa de
Internacionalizacio´n de la I ? D (PT2009-0068) and by the
Spanish DGICYT (CGL2009-10466), FEDER funds from the
European Union, and the Xunta de Galicia (INCITE09-
3103009PR). FCT also supported the work of S. Castro (FCT/
BPD/41200/2007) and J. Costa (CB/C05/2009/209; PTDC/
BIA-BIC/110824/2009). The work of V. Ferrero was supported
by the Fundacio´n Ramo´n Areces
X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources
We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the
bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival
Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit
of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30
kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler
et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS
observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray
binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for
both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the
GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for
elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected
X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at
fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a
faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent
findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other
hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field
LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101
sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be
interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows
the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic
AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray
surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high
in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is
present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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